Jeremy Desmon writes: “RhymeHamster is a rhyming dictionary I edit by hand. What may interest formal poets most is that perfect rhymes are kept strict, so near misses don’t slip into the list. Slant rhymes are kept separate, on a dial you can adjust. It’s free, with no ads and no login.”
When Jeremy approached me with his rhyming dictionary, my first action was to check for rhymes with ‘orange’. This is a tricky word, as different people treat it differently: as one syllable or as two. Versification is complicated in English by words like this. ‘Fire’ and ‘child’ come to mind – they create interesting opportunities for metre as well as challenges for rhyme. Anyway, RhymeHamster doesn’t list ‘sporange’, ‘the Blorange’ or ‘Daniel Gorringe’ which (to me) are all perfect rhymes.
Eminem has a further take on rhymes for orange – here is a 2-minute clip from a 2025 ’60 Minutes’ interview, with some solid slant rhymes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgQI655FqtM&t=131s
Jeremy Desmon is a musical theater bookwriter and lyricist. For twenty years he has taught a playwriting workshop at Princeton, focused on musicals and songwriting.
www.jeremydesmon.com
www.WeWriteMusicals.com
Form in Formless Times 